By STAN CHOE, Associated Press Business Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — The majority of U.S. stocks are rising Wednesday, and Wall Street is drifting in mixed trading following weeks of scary swings, both down and up.
The S&P 500 was 0.4% lower in morning trading and potentially heading for a second quiet day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 201 points, or 0.5%, as of 10:45 a.m. Eastern time, while more drops for Nvidia and Tesla were sending the Nasdaq composite toward a market-leading loss of 1.2%.
Big Tech stocks have been at the center of the U.S. stock market’s recent sell-off, which earlier this month took the S&P 500 10% below its all-time high for its first “correction” since 2023. Big Tech had rocketed in earlier years amid a frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology to prices that critics called overdone, rising even more quickly than their rapidly growing profits.
Nvidia fell 4.7% to bring its loss for the young year so far to 14.4%. It was the single heaviest weight on the S&P 500 by far.
Tesla has also been contending with additional challenges, including worries that political anger at its CEO, Elon Musk, will hurt the electric-vehicle maker’s sales. Tesla dropped 4.1% to extend its loss for 2025 so far to 31.6%.
The U.S. stock market has steadied somewhat since its drop into a correction, and the S&P 500 is back within 6.5% of its record. But strategists along Wall Street warn the sharp swings likely aren’t over yet, with a suite of U.S. tariffs scheduled to arrive early next month. Even if those end up less painful for the global economy than feared, all the talk about tariffs has already soured confidence among U.S. consumers and companies.
So far, the economy and job market have appeared to remain solid despite the worsening moods, and economists are looking for signals that the hit to confidence is translating into real pain for the economy. Another report on Wednesday morning offered little clarity.
Orders for machinery, airplanes and other long-lasting manufactured products unexpectedly grew last month, when economists were forecasting a contraction. But a subset of the data that’s seen as an indicator for investment by businesses, which excludes aircraft and defense products, went from growth to contraction. That could be a signal businesses are holding back on spending to see how tariffs play out.
Treasury yields in the bond market, which often move with expectations for the U.S. economy’s strength, swiveled up and down following the report. The yield on the 10-year Treasury was sitting at 4.34%, up from 4.31% late Tuesday.
On Wall Street, GameStop jumped 13.1% after the video-game retailer reported better results for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It also said it would begin investing part of its treasury in bitcoin.
Dollar Tree rose 7.6% after it said it’s selling Family Dollar to a pair of private equity firms for $1 billion after a decade of trying to make its acquisition of the bargain chain fit. Dollar Tree also reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected.
Cintas climbed 8.1% after the provider of work uniforms, restroom supplies and other equipment reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected.
In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed across much of Europe and Asia. The FTSE 100 rose 0.3% in London after a report said U.K. inflation improved by a touch more than economists expected.
AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
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